With the commercial
world finding the rules of politics and in particular those surrounding local
government reporting procedures during purdah difficult to observe, local
politicians of the independent variety have simply taken to helping commerce
through a doorstep whispering campaign.Unfortunately for the administration at old County Hall in Morpeth the whispers regarding the buying in at great expense, with public money, shops in Bedlington and a cinema in Ashington are so noisy they have alerted people to think about what’s happening across the County and why Northumberland Tories are supporting some independents and bulling up their Leaders costly promise to Ashington, with short term gain from the public purse that carries a very dodgy future indeed.
The more vocal and questioning Tories and their local branch members from the North and West of the County are questioning the policy of spend, spend, spend on holding some independent votes until 2021 and not losing ground to a very challenging Labour MP who is forcing the Tories hand while their own high streets wallow in emptiness and suffer from a massive lack of investment, with neither the Tory administration in County Hall or its investment arm ADVANCE Northumberland listening to their plights at all. Its also widely rumoured that the bullying within the administration at County Hall is why your Tory Councillor remains silent while the Leader and and the Independents get all the sweeties available.
The conceited way
the Bedlington and Ashington investment packages have been cobbled together
exposes where the additional income from the growth in new housing is being
spent. The building of shop units and a cinema along with the gifting of their
use to commercial retailers to ensure it looks like the administration is
working for the people is so wrong in so many ways. The Tories own supporters
are asking where’s the help for them even if their Councillors aren’t..
Sitting within
their much weakened position is Berwick and Alnwick both with empty commercial
premises and very little hope of growth in the short term, Hexham which
appears to be gaining ghost town status, Blyth being fed rhetoric from ADVANCE
Northumberland even after its local Council pours in huge monetary sums to
bolster the County Councils service delivery across South East Northumberland
with its cash, their shops numbers remain static and without the necessary
investment support from the Council. Prudhoe is a different story with the battle of where will shops be best placed, on the High Street or at Low Prudhoe to catch the Gateshead Borough trade who could shop without the anguish of its own self generated traffic.
Whatever the answers, all towns need long term investment and that means ending the short term fix for some; and coming up with a detailed plan that probably includes the enticement of on-line companies to take up empty retail premises on our high streets by stopping home trading over a yet to be ascertained sum.
